How did I get to this point anyways?

This year started off fairly negative. If there was one thing I had in mind for 2013, it was to make drastic changes. As soon as I started making some simple changes with little risk, things seemed to move fast. I knew that I wanted to volunteer. I knew that I wanted a different career path.

Becoming involved with The Bridge and a financial services company sure got things moving! I used to volunteer with McMaster/St. Augustine’s, and before that,  St. Josephs’ Villa a number of years ago. I’ve been looking for another place to volunteer, but I had certain conditions…it had to be far, far away from reminding me of certain situations. Working with men who are trying to make dramatic changes while transitioning  from prison life back to the community fit my need. When I arrived for my first visit, I got nervous. A woman in her early 30’s in the bad part of town? Working with ex-offenders? Alone? Oh boy. I was nervous walking in. It was if I was sitting on a teeder-todder, my status was on the ground, and I felt vulnerable. I was worried that I had to be on the defensive-a natural reaction to the environment? After briefly speaking with, the executive director (he had a few words of encouragement for me!), I realized that I was completely off. He asked me not to be too offended if any of our clients made any off colour comment or joke about women…some of these men have been hurt in the worst way by them. All of a sudden, the teeder-todder switched position; I was rising with the strength of the clients. I realized that I wasn’t the vulnerable one in the situation. Our clients are, and we are here to support them.

People often ask how in the world did I come across an organization like the Bridge? I guess I would have to think back to last fall when my brother got back in touch with one of our ‘old’ managers from McDonalds. It was great to see all of us down different career paths from our beginnings at McDonalds. He had invited my brother and I to a gala that was coming up to raise money and awareness for the Bridge. A great family friend of his was the chairperson of the board, so he himself got involved with the organization a few months prior. It was an amazing gala listening to Shannon Maroney, a survivor or a terrifying relationship. She spoke passionately about Restorative Justice practices. There were also videoclips of previous Bridge clients telling their stories of how the Bridge had changed their lives. I didn't quite know how at this point, but I was going to get involved with the Bridge. A few months passed, and I decided to take my cooking skills into what was needed for the Bridge, and hence became my involvement with the Tuesday night Dinner and Discussion program. Cooking was only half the battle. The first night I remember being completely nerve wracked by being accepted by the guys. They welcomed me with open arms and gladly shared their experiences even though I was a stranger to them. I was then on board to preparing meals every other Tuesday, and loved every experience.

OK, that’s the Bridge…so how did joining a financial services company come about? Remember that manager? Well, let’s rewind back to the gala for the Bridge…my first question to him was, “so how’s life after McDonalds?” I’ve never seen someone so passionate and happy about what they do on a daily basis…we were already Facebook friends, so our conversations in addition to his posts had me curious. My brother and him kept in touch, and finally, after losing around 3 of his business cards, I decided to send him an email in January and we got together for a coffee. I loved everything that he had to say about this company. Teaching was getting exhausting and frustrating. I didn’t have much of a life outside of my classroom, especially this past year, with this particular group of students. Taking on this career opportunity part time struck a chord with me, a hint of independence from the classroom as you will. I thought how incredible it might be to start part time, and then see where it might go into the next school year. Later that week, I attended the first Saturday training session, and signed agreements to join! Working for this company months later, I still see the excitement in the manager, myself, the partners, other people in the company, and of course, our clients!

I bet you’re thinking, OK, I see how the Bridge came about, and maybe now even financial services…now you’re moving to Abu Dhabi. Wait...what? Did I miss something? Working for a financial services company on commission is a completely different way of working. I had to think outside of the 9-5 way of thinking (which was fine, these hours were still being taken up from teaching). So, I decided to turn to networking. Having being a representative for Pampered Chef in the past, I was very familiar with how important it was to network with similar minded individuals to build a personal brand. My LinkedIn profile was updated, new skills added, more connections made via social media, meetups, group networking; if I saw an event that I could go to, I went. One online connection I made was to an individual who had formerly been on the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce as well as many other groups. I joined one of his online networking groups and he sent me a request via LinkenIn. I thanked him for adding me, and he suggested skills I should add to my profile. One of them was ESL (English as a Second Language). Even though I may not have the specialist courses yet, there have been a number of students in my classroom over the years that have come from another country speaking different languages. So, I added the skill, hey, why not?

Working for a financial services company, I started to get emails from other financial services companies in attempts to recruit me. I knew better than to reply, usually just deleted them. One evening (this particular evening I recall coming home from the Bridge having just being interviewed for a seat on the Board of Directors), I got another recruiting email. I was just about to delete it, but something told me to open it…it wasn’t from another financial institution. It was from Footprints, and a man named Sean Harris was about to become another very important person in my life. Footprints is a recruiting company that hires Canadian trained teachers and places them in various places overseas. This email was an invitation to apply for a new area for Footprints: Abu Dhabi. I had to look it up so see where it was! The more I read about the UAE, the more I was in love. I went to school the next day and talked to a few staff members about it. They were surprised that I hadn’t applied yet. I applied 2 days after I got the email from Sean Harris. I had never considered working overseas before in a realistic way. My life was changing, even more so than what this blog is allowing to express at the moment…and working overseas suddenly made sense. I wondered briefly how I was picked up from this company…adding skills like ESL put my profile up in front of the international recruiters! My only worry at that point was how in the world was I going to tell my family and friends?

What I did know was that it was going to have to be one on one, and in person if possible. When you say to someone, “I have something to tell you, but it has to be in person” automatically puts red flags up…most thought something must have been wrong in the context that I knew them. The Executive Director of the Bridge thought perhaps that something had come up on my criminal reference check that I was undergoing. No, I do not have a criminal record. My dad’s first thought was that I must have been expecting. No, I am not pregnant. My sister, who through the financial company applied for life insurance the same time I did, figured that something must have come up during the underwriting and that I must have been sick. No, I am not sick. So taken together, I laughed at the assumptions of being a sick pregnant criminal. All were shocked, but supportive.  Many said that they would take advantage of the opportunity had they been in my shoes. Bravery, courage, and fearlessness were put forth as new qualities for me…I don’t feel any of these. I am just thankful for the new lease on life that seems to have been granted to me, and I owe it to myself and supporters to find out just who this Cara Tabron is.

My point of this blog is two-fold…one was to hopefully explain the connections between the events in my life this past year to try and make sense of it. Many who know me seemed to be thrown for a loop with all of my announcements...it seemed every other time they saw me, my life was moving somewhere different. The second is to hopefully bring across that saying goodbye to those in my life, especially those from the Bridge and our financial services company are particularly hard as many individuals from them have left such a huge impact in my heart in such a short period of time. 2013 was going to be my year of change. Changed it has.